"
"Was father very religious when he was young?"
"No, I can't say that he was. But then we never got on, your father
and I. Our lines didn't run together at all. But I shouldn't have
called him a religious man."
"Then all this time father has been lying?"
Her uncle gazed at her apprehensively. He did not wish to undermine
her faith in her father on the very day after his death, but he was
so ignorant about her, her thoughts and beliefs and desires, that he
did not know what her idea of her father had been. His idea of him
had always been that he was a dirty, miserly scoundrel, but that was
not quite the thing for a daughter to feel, and there was an
innocence and simplicity about Maggie that perplexed him.
"I can't truly say that I ever knew what your father's private
feelings were. He never cared for me enough to tell me. He may have
been very religious in his real thoughts. We never discussed such
things."
Maggie turned round upon him.
"I know. You're pretending. You've said to yourself, 'I mustn't tell
her what I think about her father the very day after his death, that
isn't a pleasant thing to do.
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